WELLINGTON — That wicked storm that swept through Thursday literally ripped apart Cemetery Road, leaving a 5-foot gap where solid asphalt once stood.

Barricades and cones are blocking the road to through traffic after Thursday’s flash floods caused part of the road to cave.

The affected portion of the road passed over a drain pipe, and it is likely that the large volume of water rushing through the pipe found another way through the wall supporting the road, causing a high-pressure stream to destroy the road’s base. The sandstone wall washed away, while the asphalt fell in.

High water from the flooding obscured the damage until the water level receded.

“This is the best example I’ve seen where people shouldn’t go around barricades,” Wellington Township Trustee Calvin Woods said.  “They don’t know what they can’t see.”

Wellington Township and the Village of Wellington share the road, which will stay closed until its repair.

Flash floods closed six roads in the area because of high water.  Tributaries to the Black River overflowed Thursday night, and the river itself overflowed Friday morning.

The official rain gauge at Findley State Park marked 3.68 inches of rainfall Thursday night, though area farms reported as much as 8 inches. That surpasses the average June rainfall for Cleveland, which totals 3.37 inches.

“There have been a lot of days in a row of rain in the area,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Martin Mullen of southern Lorain County, though he noted that not every part of the area had gotten rain each day.

Amherst Fire Chief Wayne Northeim said while other parts of the county were under a torrent of water, his city was hit by fierce winds.

In the span of four hours, firefighters dealt with four downed trees and 11 calls for help.

“The other calls were branches down on wires smoldering and causing problems,” he said.

Ohio Highway Patrol Dispatcher Jennifer Hovinetz said troopers were called out to 20 places where trees were knocked down and waters rose above street level — mostly in the Wellington area.

Residents should still be careful; any amount of rain could potentially “bring the waters right back up,” said Mullen.

And things could get very bad again, the weather service warns.

A cold front is expected to sweep through the region later today, and depending on the timing of the front, it could stir a major outbreak of severe storms this evening, according to an alert posted by meteorologists Friday.

Storms could continue to brew Sunday and Monday, bringing pulse-type thunderstorms with localized large hail and destructive downburst winds.

Tom Kelley, who heads the county Emergency Management Agency, said any more rain could result in disaster.

“The southern part of the county is soaked. If we get even a moderate rainfall, it would run right off,” he said.

That would mean roadside ditches would fill almost immediately and flooding could return, Kelley said.

He said residents living in a flood-prone area of Carlisle Township behind the Elyria Country Club have already been warned to brace for rising waters.

The weather service has a flood warning in effect for the Black River, which starts flooding low-lying areas near the course at about 9.5 feet. The warning says the river is expected to crest Saturday at 10.4 feet — a number that Kelley estimates could be higher.

Contact Allison Dietz at 329-7128 or metro@chroniclet.com.

---

Print this story
Report an inappropriate comment

---

In order to comment, you must agree to our user agreement and discussion guidelines.

Need help? Email Us.

---